MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: January 17, 2022
New releases from JP Bimeni & The Black Belts, Beirut and Anais Mitchell
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
JP Bimeni & The Black Belts
Give Me Hope
(Lovemonk Records)
★★★★
MICHAEL Kiwanuka, Leon Bridges and Curtis Harding – many contemporary artists take hefty inspiration from ’60s American soul music.
Though perhaps none more so than Burundi-born JP Bimeni. His second album is in deep debt to legends like Otis Redding and Ben E King, which is no bad thing of course, especially when the music is as full of life and emotion as this.
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